UPDATE: Reader Alex Gladd writes in to let us know that Amazon appears to be altering its standard downloadable game return policy when dealing with customer complaints about SimCity. After writing to Amazon through the "Contact Us" page to express his anger over the state of the game, Gladd got a reply stating, "as a standard policy, Games, Game Items, and Software Downloads are not returnable after purchase. However, because of the circumstances, I've made an exception and issued a refund in the amount of $54.99 [not including $5 refunded for a previously screwed up pre-order]." Amazon wasn't immediately available to respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, Polygon reports that EA has sent an e-mail to its various SimCity marketing partners to stop actively promoting the game through text links and other advertising through its Origin LinkShare program. "We will notify you as soon as the SimCity marketing campaigns have been resumed and our promotional links are once again live in the Linkshare interface," the note reads, in part. "We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation."

ORIGINAL STORY

Electronic Arts has indicated that it will not be altering its usual digital refund policy in the wake of SimCity server issues that have led to access problems and scaled-back features for players that are able to log in, days after the game's North American release.

"In general we do not offer refunds on digital download games," EA tweeted through its official Origin account yesterday, directing people to the company's online policy on returns and cancellations. While downloadable games purchased in North America are not be refunded "as a general policy," EA does offer a "14-day unconditional guarantee" on any physical product sold through the Origin store. European customers, however, may be able to withdraw their downloadable purchase during a 14-day "Cooling Off period" as outlined on EA's European return policy page.

The recent tweet comes after a message posted to EA's forums by Community Manager Raven on Tuesday, stating that "[i]f you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order... though we're currently still in the process of resolving this issue." That message has now been revised to simply say "please review our refund policy here."

A minor furor developed over the last few days when one irate customer claimed EA support had threatened to ban his Origin account merely for requesting a refund. However, the banning "threat" only came when the customer himself threatened to have his bank stop payment on the still-pending transaction. "We will not ban players for requesting refunds," EA clarified through its Origin Twitter account.

Meanwhile, EA continues to apologize for the ongoing server problems. The company is spinning the issues as a result of the unexpected, overwhelming popularity of the game. After servers filled up within hours of Tuesday's launch, "what we saw was that players were having such a good time they didn't want to leave the game, which kept our servers packed and made it difficult for new players to join," Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis said in a forum message. He went on to promise that missing game features, taken out in an effort to reduce server load, would be restored soon, but that "our number one priority is to bring stability to our servers."

In a statement obtained by Kotaku, Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw noted the game's popularity, saying that 700,000 cities were created in one 24-hour period, but she admitted that it's "now evident that players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration" as American customers. Bradshaw promised to "quickly and dramatically increase the number and stability of our servers," and the company did indeed add three European servers last night.

At the same time, an internal memo circulated to EA employees by Bradshaw (and obtained by Polygon), praises the hard work the developers put into the game while admitting that the public reaction to post-launch problems is justified. "I'd like to say that it's not fair— that the game score shouldn't be punished for a server problem. But it is fair," she wrote.

A manager for EA's Korean Facebook page, meanwhile, seems to have risked angering an entire continent by mentioning that there are no local Asian servers for the game because "there is a lot of piracy in Asia, so it would be difficult for the time being" (as spotted and translated by Kotaku).

Amazon appears to be offering both retail and downloadable versions of the Standard and Limited Edition SimCity on their online store again, after they were briefly unavailable yesterday. The online retailer is still warning potential buyers up front that "[m]any customers are having issues connecting to the 'SimCity' servers. EA is actively working to resolve these issues, but at this time we do not know when the issue will be fixed."

Latest Ars Video >

War Stories | Ultima Online: The virtual ecology

When creating Ultima Online, Richard Garriott had grand dreams. He and Starr Long planned on implementing a virtual ecology into their massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It was an ambitious system, one that would have cows that graze and predators that eat herbivores. However, once the game went live a small problem had arisen...

War Stories | Ultima Online: The virtual ecology

War Stories | Ultima Online: The virtual ecology

When creating Ultima Online, Richard Garriott had grand dreams. He and Starr Long planned on implementing a virtual ecology into their massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It was an ambitious system, one that would have cows that graze and predators that eat herbivores. However, once the game went live a small problem had arisen...

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

315 Reader Comments

Maybe I'm a slow learner but from what I finally realize is that offline play for this game is going to be an impossible achievement. These issues with network are not caused by the DRM itself but the fact that the servers are not able to run the game code (Glassbox engine). I read somewhere that it's akin to asking for WOW to have an offline play. Logistically it just can't happen because significant portions of the game have been engineered from ground up to run only on the servers. The only way to get an "offline" play option would be to rebuild the game again. Some of the darker places on the internet forums where people discuss how to break DRM also confirm this sentiment. They're not sure if SimCity could ever be made into an offline game, therefore it's unlikely to come to TPB anytime soon. In the meantime we're at the computational mercy of their servers.

The same thing was claimed for Diablo 3. Then they announced the offline version for playstation.

I actually agree with Maxis that the main intention for the server connection requirement is to expand SimCity beyond the single player realm, and the DRM being a convenient side effect.

If that was the case, why wouldn't they just provide a single player mode without the requirement of a persistent connection and normal, at least somewhat less invasive DRM? I'd rather buy SC2K (again) from GoG than encourage this kind of messed up DRM.

Has anyone announced a lawsuit yet? It seems like someone should have announced a lawsuit by now. If they can get a judge to go along with the whole 'being denied access for several days to a game you legitimately purchased a license for' as a form of damage the court is willing to recognize, that could totally work (to survive summary judgement, anyway).

Not offering refunds will only lead customers to dispute their credit card charges which seems like it'd be worse for EA...

No, apparently that results in them locking out your Origin account.

Note the carefully crafted denial that states they don't kill Origin accounts for requesting a refund. But the allegation was not that they kill your account if you request a refund, but if you dispute their credit card charge. That sort of side-step wordsmithing in an official statement is worthy of the political arena, and shows you just how devious the EA PR machine is.

Not sure what part of "North America" you are in, but that might be your bank specifically, and not a Federal Law. If I have consciously made a purchase and I cannot dispute that I did not - my bank will allow the charge to go through regardless of how I "feel" after thet purchase. If I push a stop claim on it - I have to validate that it was fraud otherwise I'm in violation of filing a false fraud claim, which then is Fed Law.

Only if you claim it was a fraudulent transaction, IE someone else used my card. However, most banks (credit cards) will allow a dispute refund where good and/or services are not delivered. You certainly could call up and cancel the transaction for EA's inability to deliver the service.

I was bored and decided to try EA's iPad game Road Trippin last night. Guess what? It couldn't connect to the server. Way to go, EA! I definitely won't be buying their products again. Too bad- I used to like some of them (Need for Speed 3 was an all time favorite, as was NHL Hockey '92), but this refusal to refund purchases is a horrible response from a PR/media relations perspective. Haha, I was actually planning to buy SimCity once the issues resolved and they released it for Mac, too. You dun shot yerselves in da foot!

Maybe I'm a slow learner but from what I finally realize is that offline play for this game is going to be an impossible achievement. These issues with network are not caused by the DRM itself but the fact that the servers are not able to run the game code (Glassbox engine). I read somewhere that it's akin to asking for WOW to have an offline play. Logistically it just can't happen because significant portions of the game have been engineered from ground up to run only on the servers. The only way to get an "offline" play option would be to rebuild the game again. Some of the darker places on the internet forums where people discuss how to break DRM also confirm this sentiment. They're not sure if SimCity could ever be made into an offline game, therefore it's unlikely to come to TPB anytime soon. In the meantime we're at the computational mercy of their servers.

I'm pretty sure it can (though obviously game design decisions have pushed in the multiplayer direction), but I'm seen mention here on the Ars comment section that you can unplug your network cable and keep playing for about 20 minutes before the game kicks you off for being disconnected.

If that is true (and I do not own the game, so I cannot verify), then that means that all of the core simulation is occurring on the user's own computer. Indeed, EA and Maxis have stated that the demands the simulation makes on the computer is what has limited the map sizes. If the simulation was happening on the remote server, then this wouldn't be true either.

That doesn't mean that NO data travels through the server, but it sounds like the only thing that HAS to is the multiplayer component.

Not offering refunds will only lead customers to dispute their credit card charges which seems like it'd be worse for EA...

No, apparently that results in them locking out your Origin account.

Note the carefully crafted denial that states they don't kill Origin accounts for requesting a refund. But the allegation was not that they kill your account if you request a refund, but if you dispute their credit card charge. That sort of side-step wordsmithing in an official statement is worthy of the political arena, and shows you just how devious the EA PR machine is.

Trying to issue a chargeback because of a problem like this is borderline fraud.

Of course I also ordered the physical product and their policy makes sense because, even with the physical product, Origin is required. I would even argue that the SimCity installer isn't even present on the disk, because I was unable to install SimCity on Monday, after it arrived at my door at 8PM.

So EA should issue refunds if you send in the physical disk ( and all support documents the only 3 pieces of paper ) and retail package. They could easily either credit your Origin account and/or issue you a check for the product. They can go through Amazon, Best Buy, ect to get their money back.

Banzai51 wrote:

fryhole wrote:

Not sure what part of "North America" you are in, but that might be your bank specifically, and not a Federal Law. If I have consciously made a purchase and I cannot dispute that I did not - my bank will allow the charge to go through regardless of how I "feel" after thet purchase. If I push a stop claim on it - I have to validate that it was fraud otherwise I'm in violation of filing a false fraud claim, which then is Fed Law.

Only if you claim it was a fraudulent transaction, IE someone else used my card. However, most banks (credit cards) will allow a dispute refund where good and/or services are not delivered. You certainly could call up and cancel the transaction for EA's inability to deliver the service.

Now your debt card? That would be trickier.

EA would have a chance to response to your claim, they would explain they are working to address the quality of service, most banks would likely then side with EA for the time being.

The same thing was claimed for Diablo 3. Then they announced the offline version for playstation.

I hope that's the case because that's the best possible news. I still really want this game badly and the fixes they need to make to it are not that difficult to address. It's just that EA is busy getting a PhD in Murphy's Law at the moment.

Not offering refunds will only lead customers to dispute their credit card charges which seems like it'd be worse for EA...

No, apparently that results in them locking out your Origin account.

Note the carefully crafted denial that states they don't kill Origin accounts for requesting a refund. But the allegation was not that they kill your account if you request a refund, but if you dispute their credit card charge. That sort of side-step wordsmithing in an official statement is worthy of the political arena, and shows you just how devious the EA PR machine is.

Not offering refunds will only lead customers to dispute their credit card charges which seems like it'd be worse for EA...

Not only that, but CC issuers policies don't care about EA's policies and have stronger legal backing. The chargeback will likely stand. Plus EA doesn't seem to understand the concept of invalidity of contracts executed in bad faith.

Yep, and just like Diablo 3 it will see poor sales becuase of their--- oh wait. Nevermind. 12 Million copies. Oh they learned from Diablo 3 all right. That after 1-2 weeks, NONE of this matters.

Also, for people who say that cities should be playable on their own, even IF a lot of the processing wasn't done server-side... if you've played the game for any considerable length of time you will learn that Glass Box is INTEGRAL to a city's success.

I believe the Ars preview is testament to that. Both Kyle and Peter were having issues and it seemed to be unsolvable. That's because the solution is commerce. It is imperitive to have cities specialize, which leaves weaknesses in neglected areas that can be compensated by neighbors.

THIS GAME CANNOT BE PLAYED LIKE PREVIOUS SIM CITIES. IT'S A REBOOT. YOU WANT A SEQUEL? PLAY CITIES XL. But what do I know, I actually played the game and know what I'm doing.

Regardless of whether the online only is a requirement or good game design, I think many of the complaints are stemming from just that. This new SimCity is not what people want. Certainly a substantially sized group. That doesn't mean that everyone dislikes it, but for many people, it isn't what they want. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy it, or people think less of you if you do. Likewise, that doesn't mean they don't know what they are doing, they know it isn't what they want!

Note the carefully crafted denial that states they don't kill Origin accounts for requesting a refund. But the allegation was not that they kill your account if you request a refund, but if you dispute their credit card charge.

Yep, that's super-sleazy. The allegation isn't that outrageous - even Valve would kill your Steam account for disputing a charge - but they still need to lie about it.

I hope they do a special where Oprah Trumpey, the new EA CFO, runs through Maxis' offices yelling "you're fired, you're fired, and you're fired!"

No, I'm pretty sure it would be you who gets hit with the fraud rap there I'm afriad. You agreed to EA's refund policy.

This whole thing, especially the fact the servers were packed day one despuite all the grumbling before release about the DRM, EA does what it does because it never hurts their bottom line. They've learned PR disaster after PR disaster doesn't count when it comes to gamers.

What a wonderful incentive for NOT buying games on release day. That said, I am entirely unsympathetic to Sim City buyers. Firstly, the game was plagued by the same issues in BETA. Secondly, you are supporting a ridiculous always-on/DRM scheme. I love Sim City, but there's no way I'm buying a version that so is so horribly restrictive.

Is it really demand for the actual game that's causing the server issues? Or the workload that's being produced by what gamers are doing in the game? Somehow I suspect it's the latter of the two.

In any event, EA cannot possibly claim with a straight face that it didn't see the demand coming. Publishers are OBSESSED with pre-release tracking data, whether it's pre-orders, retail shipments or traffic to their title's Web site. I just don't see how it's possible that one of the largest game publishers in the world 1) did not have this kind of data at its disposal, and 2) use it to safely predict the server capacity it would need for SimCity,

Their load testing pre-launch couldn't even handle that load. They knew before hand that the servers wouldn't be able to take it. I just find it funny that no one there realized that the problems during load testing were NOTHING compared to the problems after release.

What most artucles mention is how EA is making a clIm that there were 700k+ citoes built which means there were a lot of people playing the game.

They forget to ask how many of these cities were made by the same account and how many were played beyond 10, 20,,30 minutes or an hour ? Many players lost connection and progress others started new cities several times when they'd lose connection and went thru the tutorial each time (which according to some is not skippable)

"According to the FTC, the 3-Day Cooling Off Rule does NOT apply to the purchase of new automobiles or items sold online. It only applies when a company is selling something that costs $25 or more at a location other than its regular place of business."